Virginia's Drew Hunter Sets National High School Indoor Record for the Mile

Note: The NFHS does not keep national records for indoor track.

From USA Today:

Drew Hunter from Loudoun Valley High in Virginia set the American indoor record for the mile Saturday with a time of 3:58.25 during the Armory Track Invitational at The Armory in New York.

His time bests the 15-year-old mark by Alan Webb, who ran 3:59.86 at the New Balance Games at The Armory in January 2001. That was the first sub-four-minute mile by a U.S. high schooler.

Hunter, who is heading to the University of Oregon, competed in the men’s mile race Saturday won by 2012 NCAA champion Chris O’Hare. The winning time was 3:54.59.

“Being in such a historic building where everyone appreciates running is amazing,” Hunter said in a news release. “If there is one place to break an indoor sub-4 it is here at The Armory knowing all the amazing races that have been run here.”

The connection between Hunter and Webb goes deeper than the record. Hunter’s parents, Marc and Joan, were in their final year as coaches at South Lakes High in Reston, Va., where Webb attended high school before his collegiate career at Michigan.

“It’s a testament to Drew’s maturity and the way he’s been brought up,” Webb said in the news release. “In a family where the measure of you isn’t the results of what you run but it’s based on how you conduct yourself. I’m proud of him for doing it the right way. There’s a certain purity to running at the high school level. It sparks the imagination and makes you think what could be and what’s possible. This is the beginning of the story for Drew. We’re going to witness him develop into being one of the next big stars.”

The record comes a week after Hunter became the first high schooler to run 3,000 meters in less than eight minutes with a time of 7 minutes, 59.33 seconds at the JDL Fast Track in Winston-Salem, N.C.